THE FIFTH DAGGER

N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947. 1st edition. Covers sunned at edges, paper beginning to age tone, else very good in dust jacket with rubbing to folds, spine panel faded with wear to ends, corners nicked, rear panel darkened, , not price clipped, $2.00 intact, in protective mylar cover. Her firs book-length detective story. "Diana Blakeley, engaging young narrator and perceptive amateur sleuth of this deftly plotted and swiftly moving story, began having trouble at the first evening party given to her and her doctor husband after their return from their honeymoon. One of the doctor's patients, a lovely but neurotic young girl, insulted Diana and slapped her face. When Diana discovered that this girl had for some time been 'on the make' for Allen Blakeley and had tried her best to force him into matrimony, she knew she had made a bitter enemy. But when this girl, Diana, and Allen attended the same dance it was not the worried Diana who suffered. The 'favors' at the dance were tiny daggers, quite un-lethal affairs...except for one! And that one, expertly wielded on the dim dance-floor, ended the tortured life of the girl who in her twisted way loved Allen Blakeley but could not win him. Inspector Donnegan of the Boston police force superintended the manhunt that followed, a hunt that was complicated by another baffling murder ... also done in plain view of a number of people. But it was Diana who really solved the slayings, and the way she did it comprises a tale well filled with action, puzzlement, and shrewd detecting.". First Edition. Hardcover. Good-Very Good/Good. Illus. by Kumme, Walter. Book.